Undergraduates get their first glimpse at the garden

By Alida Robey

I’ve been promising myself a visit to the University of Bristol Botanic Garden since I arrived in Bristol four years ago. Life has intervened. Yet when the opportunity came to join the new intake of students from the University on their first practical of their 3 year undergraduate degree, I leapt at the chance.

Once there, the thrill of the plants, garden, stories and mysteries within, were hard to resist!  I joined the briefing given by the Garden’s curator, Nick Wray, as he introduced the day’s second group of 70 students (over 250 students attended the practical over two days) to their PhD student demonstrators – there to inspire the undergraduates about different aspects of the gardens.

Botanists disperse some ‘big data’

Recently, Botanists at Trinity College Dublin launched a database with information that documents significant ‘life events’ for nearly 600 plant species across the globe. The database is the result of contributions from individuals working across five different continents, who compiled information on plant life histories for a near 50-year span, and is an example of big data. (more…)